Just Walk On By Characters

Topic: What difficulties do Kezia in “The Wedding Gift” and Brent Staples in “Just Walk On By” face as disadvantaged members of society?

There are many different people in our society, rich people, poor people, female, male, influence, and so on. Inside the society, people mostly classed in different level by their background and finances. And people who are poor and powerless will classed in disadvantaged members of the society. As disadvantaged members of the society, they need to face many difficulties and dangers situation in their life. When they face the problem, they need to do a very good decision in order to survive. Most of them are just because their background, financial and outlook; and always receive some unpleased treatments. There is a good example in the story “The Wedding Gift” and “Just Walk On By”. The character in two stories,
Kezia and Brent, both of them are disadvantaged members, but they have different reason, situation, and reaction.

For the reason of Kezia had been placed in disadvantaged level is because she is orphan, poor, and powerless. Family, money, and power are very important in Kezia’s society. The family that she lives and works was a great example for compare with Kezias’. Barnes’s family was the most powerful and rich family in that town, “…for Mr. Barclay had the best pew in the meetinghouse and was chief pillar of godliness in Port Marriott.”(60), they have a big house, servants, and nice dress. Unlike Kezia, Brent, the character in “Just Walk On By”, the main reason that he become a disadvantage members is his outlook. Brent was a 22 years old black man and with six feet with two inches high, but at the society that Brent living with was most white skin and rich people, and the society have a very firm idea of black men was a mugging by literature. Therefore, people who like Brent will be easy hypothesize as a subversive and be to exclude.

In “The Wedding Gift”, Kezia did not have her own family; therefore, so she does not have any family support when she needs. She was living in Barclay’s house as a bond-girl. For example, She only can waited on table when the Barclay girls having a lesion from schoolmaster; also she needs to help the house work with other worker in the house; also she can not rejected Barclay order to marry Mr. Hathaway. Moreover, Kezia was very poor, poor enough to use her health to exchange material, and got food from people kindness. As an example, her wedding dress is “…in finery second-hand from the Barclay girls, in a new linen shift and drawers that she had sewn herself in the light of the kitchen candles…” (61); also the food for her on the road to her wedding was given by Nabby, a worker in Barclay’s kitchen. On the other hand, the character in “Just Walk On By” had a very different situation but also as a unfair treatment. Brent was young, black, and high man who was a student newly arrived at the University of Chicago. That society always thinks that black man is act with violence, also Brent was not rich and he usually wears bulky military jacket. As a result of his out look and the incorrect thesis, people think he is a dangers person, like a mugger, or rapist, or assassin, something like that. And when he does something normal as other people do, people will have some over reaction. For example, when he swung behind a young white lady at night, the lady will felt so scare about him, think he want to do something bad to her, and so she running away from him as fast as she could. There is another example, “I entered a jewelry store….The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash.”(172,12)

To face the unfair treatments, two of them have total different reaction.
Kezia, the poor little girl in “The Wedding Gift”, her choices is fight back. She forsaken her meek, gave out her reputation, and did all the tricks the can help her get back her freedom. She uses the man, Black Sam, who came to pick her up to the wedding. She try to be nice to him, and when the storm come, she decided to sharing body warm with him, but not using the tinderbox to make a fire place. However, the society is not accepted this kind action, even though they did nothing, and just want to save their life. In that society, lady reputation is more important than life. For this reason, she is no longer able to get marry with others but Sam, and she reach her goal, against and get free from Mr. Barclay order. Rather than Kezia, Brent choice to solve the problem in a soft way, try to accept the justice of young black man and gave some new idea about black man to the society. As an example, he tried to warbling some popular classical composer’s songs, like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. To show that he was not a bad person and has good
education.

The society should not classify people by their background and finances, people should not judge a person action by their background and finances, and people also should not giving nonsense treatment to weaker. Therefore, those poor and powerless people will not living in a hard and painful life.